The Recipe for Repeated Success

When it comes to success in life or business, you come across successful people of varying levels. There are one-hit wonders with limited success in a specific field, and there are those who keep achieving greater things repeatedly, in various fields. What is the one thing that separates these 2 groups of successful people? Here is a recipe for repeated success.

One-hit Wonders

Taoists may warn you that excess in one direction sows the seed of its opposite. This is not an esoteric or philosophical idea only, but rather a practical and even scientific one. Any system in nature seeks balance and tends to counter sudden and excessive changes in one direction. Success follows the same pattern. High achievers put a great amount of effort into learning new skills and implementing new ideas. The road to success is a rocky one with many setbacks. However, once achieved, the psychological rewards are great. That’s where the successful people split into 2 groups. Some move on to greater things and higher levels of success, while others stop. What causes such different paths?

The Attachment Trap

The difference between these 2 groups of successful people is not in their level of effort. They both have figured that success is the result of hard work. But what separates them is how they view their success. Those with limited success put a lot of work and effort to learn and execute their ideas to fruition, but they also invest in the results emotionally.

Since the path to success is filled with setbacks, each failure is an emotional blow to their psyche. They tough their way through these setbacks and finally achieve success. The cost, however, is high, because their path to success is nothing but a struggle for them. They’d rather retire after few achievements to avoid further pain.

Highly successful people, on the other hand, don’t invest in the results emotionally. They put an incredible effort into achieving their goals, but since they have no attachment to the end-result, setbacks don’t bother them. Their path to success is not a struggle because they don’t assign internal values to the result.

The Root Cause of Repeatable success

Now, you may ask: How did highly successful people attain such a Zen-like detachment? How can others adopt the same attitude?

The Zen masters tell you that you must detach from your desires. The Taoists tell you to cherish the journey, not the destination. Modern psychologists tell you the same but with a different terminology – they tell you that the key is in your self-esteem.

The root cause of highly successful people is in their self-esteem— in how they value their self-worth. People with limited success, measure their self-worth with their success, so every setback is a blow to their self-esteem. Highly successful people, on the other hand, don’t tie their worth to their success. No matter what happens, their view of themselves is always the same. That’s why they can keep plowing through failures with no pain.

So before setting out on the journey in achieving your goals, make a promise to yourself. No matter what the result, you should not let it define how you value yourself. Detach not only from failures and negative feedback, but also from success and praises, and you can be unstoppable.

Author bio:

Eric Amidi writes about a range of topics in self-improvement and success mindset in personal life and business. His background includes research in Physics and Artificial Neural Networks, as well as authorship in self-development field. To learn more about his writings in success mindset follow him on twitter @DrEricAmidi or visit http://www.winnersroadmap.com